The 100: Marie Avgeropoulos on Octavia's Dramatic Transformation

On a series where nearly everyone has changed a lot from when the show began, Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) has had arguably the most notable transformation on The 100. The naïve, sheltered girl we met in the pilot has become a hardened warrior over the show’s two seasons, showing off some very cool and impressive fighting skills in the Season 2 finale – even after her decision to stay to save her brother Bellamy led to her rejection by the Grounders and her mentor, Indra.

The 100: Season 2 Review

Season 3 of The 100 will begin filming this summer, for its midseason debut on CW next year. At the Upfronts in New York last month, I spoke to Avgeropoulos about the journey Octavia has taken so far, who she truly can count on and what could be next for her.

Then and now: Marie Avgeropoulos as Octavia in The 100.

IGN: Your character has gone through a lot of loss, which was certainly added to at the end of last season when Indra cast her out. How are you hoping she can move forward after this?

Marie Avgeropoulos: First of all, I think Octavia has had one of the most dramatic character arcs on television ever. I’m having such a blast playing her now since she has become a warrior and a part of the Grounders. She’s spent the entire second season working towards becoming Indra’s second. It was such a blow to the gut when Indra revoked that position from her. At the end of the day, the strongest alliance she’ll ever have -- it’s even more than an alliance -- that’s with Bellamy. She’s the only one with a family member on the ground that’s a sibling. At the end of the day, that’s what matters to her most.

IGN: She has her brother and she has Lincoln, but she has also been kind of a loner. Could she maybe start to fit in more with the larger group?

Avgeropoulos: She has always been a black sheep among the group to begin with. In Season 1, I felt like Octavia really didn’t belong anywhere and now at the Season 2 finale, you see her and Lincoln going back to Camp Jaha, which is awkward, but they have nowhere else to go. There is a lot of tension in the air. A lot of lives were lost. We just finished a war and it is still not over. You’ll have to tune into Season 3 to see where that goes. Everybody is left in such impossible scenarios.

IGN: You got the Grounder face paint, got to fight, and the amazing scene where she kept getting up after being hit over and over. Has it been amazing to see this huge transformation as you play the character?

Avgeropoulos: The writers and executive producer, Jason Rothenberg, have been so receptive because we had a meeting about it and I’m like, “We’ve got to do something with Octavia here. She doesn’t quite fit in in Column A or Column B. Lets give her some strong purpose.” They really made her a bridge character and Lincoln was the one to open that door to her getting into that world and really finding her place.

That fight was crazy. I trained forever for that fight and it was actually more brutal. I hope the director’s cut gets released because it was much longer and more brutal. Apparently a man can’t beat up a woman that bad on television. We had to cut it down a lot, but it was really fun and pouring rain. We just had a blast doing that scene.

The 100 will be coming to San Diego Comic-Con in July with Season 3 debuting midseason next year on the CW.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.